


It's Complicated

by darkchives



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 14:18:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1107878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkchives/pseuds/darkchives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of vignettes on the exploits of the enterprise crew in high school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Complicated

It was the first day back from break, and Nyota Uhura was angry. Not at Spock, per se, though they had just broken up, but at the world at large. Her hair wasn’t smoothing back into her pony tail properly, and she wasn’t allowed to take the senior level communications course that Spock was in. She needed a distraction, which promptly walked in the classroom door. It was the new girl, blonde and of medium height, with a cute bobbed haircut. Uhura needed someone to talk to, so she made sure the seat next to her was empty. 

Carol took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and held her head high. She’d moved around a lot for her father’s job in the military and knew how to ingratiate herself into new environments better than most. 

This English class would be a breeze as long as she didn’t get stuck by the insufferable James Kirk. He’d been nice enough that morning in gym, but walking her to their shared class had taken it too far and she’d do anything to distance herself from his bubbly personality and cocky charm. There was an empty chair by a slender girl in a red sweater. She had a stack of linguistics books at her feet and a scowl aimed at everyone in the room. The linguistics books she didn’t identify with, but the scowl was definitely right up her alley. 

“Hi, I’m Carol Marcus. What’s your name?”

Uhura’s scowl turned to a smile. Carol had a lovely voice, with an even better accent. British, upperclass, well-taught, probably Oxford area… she tried to bury the linguistics under her own introduction. “I’m Uhura. Just Uhura.” Her last name was weird enough that she didn’t even bother with the first name until she knew the acquaintance was going to stick around. “I’ve gone to this school for awhile, so if you need help with directions or anything, just let me know. Or if you need someone to scare Jim Kirk away.” She smiled, teeth bared just a little more than was necessary because she knew Jim was still looking at them. 

Carol grinned and settled down in the chair beside Uhura. She’d get to the bottom of the single name situation eventually. For starters though, she was just glad that Jim had retreated back to his dark haired companion as soon as he’d seen Uhura’s nearly vicious smile directed at him. 

Carol worked with Uhura on a group project that day, each one electing to abandon their assigned groups much to the chagrin of Mr. Pike. 

“We work well together, Mr. Pike. “ Carol insisted as he made his rounds of the classroom. 

“You just got here.” Pike protested. 

Uhura smiled politely but shook her head. “Mr. Pike, because Carol just got here and she is already acquainted with me it makes sense that she would work with me. Not to mention my student ambassador position.” 

Mr. Pike let out a weary sigh, but smiled. “Fine, Miss Uhura, you may have your friend. But behave.”

Both girls high-fived behind Mr. Pike’s back and quickly made up for the lost time, giggling and whispering furtively planning their group’s kickass project. 

The boys gathered in the corner of the room all shook their heads and Scotty mumbled .”Aye lads. There goes the neighborhood.”

Xx

Hikaru Sulu turned the key for the third time and was greeted only by the same angry spluttering. He had fencing lessons in an hour couldn’t afford the loss of time. His parents would be horrified if they knew that the car was broken, let alone the fact he took fencing lessons in the first place. He opened the door and looked around, hoping to see someone who could help. Finally he caught sight of Montgomery Scott, who took career center mechanics class and was in Sulu’s calculus class. Having no other viable option, Sulu called out to him.

Scotty was so close to freedom he could taste it. Fridays were the worst days of the week until that bell rang and he could get out and do whatever he wanted. He mostly tooled around on his car or worked on Jim’s car with him, but it all depended on the day. What he did not count on was getting flagged down by the brightest kid in his calc class on the way out. What could he possibly want?

“What’s your trouble?” Scotty walked calmly to the Volvo Sulu drove. It was a very nice car, not Scotty’s taste, but nice nonetheless. 

“Uh, sorry to bother you, but my car isn’t starting and I don’t know why. You’re in mechanics, right?” At Scotty’s nod, Sulu continued. “Would you look at it? I – I should know how to fix it myself, but I have to get to a meeting in an hour.” He felt himself blush: he hated not knowing the answers to things, and his father would be ashamed that he couldn’t repair his own vehicle. But Scotty always seemed friendly and not the sort to blab about other people’s car troubles, so he had no choice but to trust his classmate. 

Scotty smiled at him. “Ah course Sulu. I’m not learning this for nothing.” Scotty popped the hood and made sure that it was nothing obvious like a disconnected battery or loose cable. 

“And she’s got gas?” Scotty asked. Sulu nodded. Scotty opened the car door and looked around inside. Just as he’d suspected.  
“She’s not in park.” He shifted the car into park and got out of the vehicle. 

“What?” Sulu asked. Scotty pointed to the shifter and spoke softly as to not embarrass Sulu. 

“She wasn’t in park. Won’t start if she’s not in park.”

Sulu’s eyes were very wide open, and then he bowed his head, grimacing. “Uh, thanks a lot, Scotty.” He cleared his throat, the shame almost too much to handle. “I certainly won’t make that mistake again.”

Scotty nodded and clapped him on the shoulder a little awkwardly. “Everyone’s gotta learn the little things sometime. Don’t worry about it.”

Sulu smiled quickly and glanced up at Scotty. “So what if I did actually want to know how my car works?”

Scotty beamed. “Then you’ll know who to ask, right?”

Xx

Hendorff regretted that fight his freshman year. He’d grown a lot since then, and the hot-headed 14 year old with a grudge against the world had disappeared and he stood stronger, kinder, and more responsible at a bit past 18. 

All of that part of him had faded away save for that godawful nickname. Cupcake. It haunted him and made him want to punch anyone he caught using it. Now he was sure Sulu didn’t know how much he hated it, but he was tap dancing on Hendorff’s last nerves anyway. 

Sulu tried not to think about freshman year much. It wasn’t like his group of friends had changed, but they themselves had changed and grown up. And he particularly didn’t like remembering the fight he and Jim had gotten into with Cupcake. Cupcake (what was his name? Sulu hated his ninth grade self even more for forgetting and falling into the trap of Jim’s nicknames) had been running with the wrong crowd, and Jim and Sulu had been hotheads anyway. So when he’d said the wrong thing about Spock’s weird ears, Sulu had no choice but to help Jim in the fray. Jim, of course, got caught right away, so it was up to Sulu to finish the fight later, because he couldn’t stand to lose. He’d caught up with Cupcake behind the locker rooms after school one day and they both ended up with broken noses. It was senior year now, and still Sulu couldn’t pass Cupcake in the halls without ducking his head in a strange combination of victory and shame. 

Hendorff rolled his eyes when he saw Sulu duck his head yet again. It had been 3 years. He was willing to forgive and forget if he could ever corner Sulu for more than three seconds and talk with him. It wasn’t good to hold grudges in the first place, plus Hendorff had wanted to get to know Sulu since they’d been in the same class junior year. They hadn’t talked of course, but it didn’t keep Hendorff from imagining a possible friendship, or even more with Sulu. 

Sulu was in the bathroom during lunch when Cupcake came in. His first instinct was to avoid him in a stall (not on account of cowardice, but more he really didn’t want to talk about freshman year), but all were full. Cupcake made eye contact and Sulu felt pinned in place by the other boy’s beady brown eyes. He cleared his throat. “Uh, hey…man.” He was hard-pressed not to say Cupcake. 

“Hey. Listen, I’m willing to forgive and forget whatever’s been done and said. We were assholes, and I’m willing to admit that. Same goes for Jim and anybody else who conspired to beat the shit out of me my freshman year. I ask your forgiveness as well. Deal?”

Sulu blinked. “Uh, yeah, apology accepted? And I’m really sorry too. I mean, I was probably worse than Jim, and that’s saying something.” He proffered his hand, and they shook. “Look, I’m going to go one step further. I do numbers, not names, so, uh, what’s yours again?”

Cupcake shook his head and grinned. “Hendorff.”

Sulu grinned back. “Okay, Hendorff. We should hang out sometime. Go to the cupcake shop or something.”

Xx

Jim didn’t actually like cars that much. What he liked was other people’s appreciation of them - specifically Scotty. They’d been friends since sixth grade, and Jim couldn’t remember a time that Scotty wasn’t interested in mechanics. So he’d followed Scotty’s lead and learned all about makes and models and horsepower. 

“No, Jim not that tight. You don’t want your hose to crack doin’ 90 do ya? She’s a fickle lady, the automobile. God love ‘em.” Scotty liked having Jim around. He never made fun of him when Scotty got excited about a new feature available for cars way too expensive for him to even dream about or a new skill he’d picked up from his father. Scotty knew Jim wasn’t as passionate as he was, but he was quick and helpful and eager to immerse himself in whatever he was doing. 

“Oh, sorry,” murmured Jim, still under the hood. He didn’t see the point to this particular hose thing. “Scotty, does it ever occur to you that if you cut this hose and then connected that other hose to here, it would make the system more efficient?” There was no answer. Jim sighed and figured that no, Scotty could do anything to fix a broken car, but he didn’t at the moment want to invent new ones. Maybe someday. Jim got bored if he didn’t think up ways to change the thing he was fixing, but he’d always known that Scotty was a much more steady individual. They’d gotten along on that difference for seven years, and Jim wouldn’t change anything. 

Scotty couldn’t help but smile at Jim’s suggestion. No, he hadn’t thought of that, but he didn’t really want to try it on his dad’s pride and joy either. Maybe when he got enough money to get a car of his own, but until then he’d have to deal with working with Jim on Scotty’s dad’s whenever they could. 

“Jim, why do you come out here with me? I appreciate the help but it ain’t exactly plush working conditions, and I know you ain’t got the love I’ve got.” Scotty thought he knew why, but he wanted to hear Jim say it. To make sure that whatever the hell he was feeling wasn’t crazy talk. 

Jim smiled faintly at the question. “Scotty, I like hanging out with you when you do the stuff you love. I like watching how happy it makes you. I like you I guess is what all that boils down to. So it doesn’t really matter what we do, as long as we’re in it together.” He laughed sharply. “ Um, basically I like you. Not the cars. You know?”

Scotty jokingly rubbed the hood of the car and made his way closer to Jim, bumping him with his hip. “Don’t you say that around this lady. She’ll get jealous.”

Xx

Sulu had horrible headache, which had started in physics and just kept going through government, where it only got worse. At least Bones was in the same class, and he was weirdly good at curing maladies, despite being a high school student with only marginal interest in sciences. Sulu plunked down next to him. “Cure me of all my ills, Leo. My head hurts.”

“Dammit, I’m a student not a doctor.” He grumbled, simultaneously pulling his backpack off of the back of his chair. He was well known for his veritable pharmacy of homemade remedies. Some of them were ancient mixtures from worlds away and some of them were simple sugar pills used when Leonard knew the student had a drug problem. He was helpful, but not entirely reckless. 

“What are your ills, you dramatic idiot?” 

Sulu frowned. “Headache. I feel like I’m piloting a spaceship upside down. With a sword through my temple.” He let a smile slip just a little, the exaggeration too much. Bones handed over an ibuprofen, and Sulu accepted it gratefully. “You’re a lifesaver, you know that? Legendary.”

“You tell that to the line of people beating down the door to date me.” Bones joked. He didn’t mind constantly being Jim’s wingman, but it wouldn’t be too terrible to finally get some action himself. 

Sulu cleared his throat. “I’m sure there are people who could stand to date you.”

Bones raised his eyebrows skeptically. “Where?”

“Right in front of you.” His heart was pounding and his head felt even worse. The teacher stood up to begin the lesson and they couldn’t talk anymore for a bit, but Sulu could feel Bones’s confusion frothing in the desk behind him. 

Bones couldn’t keep still during class. The teacher, Mr. Marcus, was a known hardass and wouldn’t allow any talking during the horribly boring lessons. Sulu, Hikaru Sulu. He’d known him since they were kindergarteners, but they’d only become anything resembling friends 2 years before. This had been a long time coming, but still Bones nearly exploded with the knowledge that his feelings were reciprocated. 

Finally, after the lesson when they were supposed to be finishing homework, Sulu scrawled on a scrap of paper, “So. We good?” He passed it swiftly behind him, only to earn a disapproving glance from Mr. Marcus. 

“Hell yeah we’re good, numbskull.”

Sulu hid his smile behind a notebook until he could compose himself to write back simply, “Good.” 

Xx

Chekov never thought he could be cool until high school. He’d skipped two grades back in elementary school, so he was tiny for junior, only fourteen. But he was fairly content because he was friends with Jim Kirk’s crowd. It had all begun when he helped Jim on a AP chemistry problem when Jim was a sophomore and he was a freshman, and from there, he’d been under Jim’s wing. 

Jim felt guilty for how he felt about Chekov. He’d had plenty of girlfriends and boyfriends and he didn’t need or even want Chekov to be among that number. For god’s sake he’d mentored Chekov, helped him through the rougher parts of his freshman and sophomore years, and had generally been there for him. It felt so wrong to harbor such a crush, but that wouldn’t stop the stupid feelings that cropped up when Chekov was being his horribly adorable self. 

“I really need to make uglier friends,” he thought as Chekov rounded the corner and stopped at his locker. 

“Jim, you’re all so old and you’re with Scotty all the time and I’m all young and never get to see you so we should hang out tonight.” He grinned hopefully. He didn’t think he’d ever respected someone more than James T. Kirk. He was smart and remarkably kind, once you got past the bravado. And he couldn’t be happier that Jim and Scotty were dating. Everyone was hooking up and Chekov found it frankly adorable. 

“Chek, of course we can hang out tonight. Just let me tell Scotty our date’s gonna be a group thing and we can find you somebody. Trust me, you’re foreign, adorable, and very available.” That was the safest way to keep his awful crush from surfacing. He was with Scotty, plain and simple. He loved Scotty and if Chekov had somebody to occupy his time it would all work out. Hopefully. 

“Adorable? Doubt it. And I’ve been losing my accent. So what’s the point?” Chekov gazed dramatically at Jim for a moment. “Kidding. Find me a girlfriend, James Kirk, or I’ll perish.” He didn’t even have a crush on anyone, but he trusted Jim’s innate people-matching skills to get him through the evening. “I’m so excited to see everyone!”  
~~~~~  
“Shit, Scotty who is available tonight? Uhura’s got that thing with the French club and Gaila’s with her family on Orion.”

“I don’t know. Just tell the wee lad you couldn’t do it.”

“And break his heart? You didn’t see his eyes, Scotty.”

“Aye, but I know them well. How about that new girl. Carol’s her name. She’s pretty.”

“Of course, Carol. You’ll have to make the call. Our introduction was less than hospitable.”

“Of course it was.”

Chekov knew the date was informal, and a group one at that, but he carefully picked out a good shirt and tousled his hair dramatically before walking over to Jim’s house (he refused to let his mother drive him for a myriad of reasons, one of which being he didn’t like being the child of the group, and the other being she still wasn’t good at driving in America). He knocked politely on the door and waited for Jim to answer. As he was waiting, a pretty blonde in a cute dress came up beside him. 

Chekov cleared his throat. “Hi, I’m Pavel Chekov. You’re in my grade but we’ve never met.”

She smiled politely. “Oh, pleasure. I’m Carol. Funny, I had no idea you were a junior. I’m going on a blind date with one tonight.”

A pit in Chekov’s stomach suddenly opened. “Uh, funny, me too.”

“I see you guys have already started getting acquainted.” Jim grabbed his car keys off of the hook at his door and whistled inside for Scotty to join them. 

“Scotty, I swear if you’ve got grease on your hands again you’re banned from my car forever.” Jim pulled the trio quickly to his car just as his mother slammed open the screen door. “Bye mom. I’ll see you later.” 

“Not so fast, young man.” Jim stopped in his tracks and ran back to his house to do whatever tasks his mother deemed appropriate to assign 4 minutes before leaving for a date. 

While Jim busied himself in the house, Carol and Chekov stared at each other in ill-concealed shock. Carol chuckled nervously and finally Chekov extended his arm. “Let’s try this again. I’m Pavel Chekov, and I’m your date for the evening. Shall we to the car?”

A half hour later, a.k.a. ten minutes late to the movie, Jim, Scotty, Carol, and Chekov all crammed into Jim’s hand-me-down pickup truck. 

“Scotty and I sit in the back. You crazy kids can have the cab.”

Chekov and Carol nodded mutely. Jim and Scotty clambered out of the cab and the two juniors were left alone. For about ten minutes, they watched the movie in silence. Chekov cleared his throat. “So, where in England did you move from?” 

“Oxford,” she replied. “And you, were you, uh, born here?”

Chekov laughed. “No, no, I lived in Russia until I was ten. Finally shaking the accent though, and I can kind of pronounce w’s.” She giggled a little, and Chekov continued. “Which, speaking of w’s, is what makes this date so interesting. We’re probably the two weirdest kids in the junior class, and here we are, sitting in Jim Kirk’s pickup truck.”

She smiled shyly. “I can’t say I can complain. The company could be worse.”


End file.
